1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, a server, an image forming apparatus, and a management method, and more particularly to an image processing system, a server, an image forming apparatus, and a management method for performing upper limit management of print volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing system including a print server can spool a print job in the print server. In this image processing system, an image forming apparatus acquires a print job spooled in the print server based on an instruction from a user and executes a print process.
For example, in some office environments, upper limit management of the usage amount of an image forming apparatus is performed. The upper limit management of the usage amount refers to such management that permits use of an image forming apparatus within an upper limit of such usage amount as the number of prints for a predetermined period that is allocated to a user or a group (division or department) to which a user belongs. For upper limit management, the image processing system includes a management server, which stores an upper limit for each user.
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of upper limit management of number of prints in an image processing system. Referring to FIG. 15, an image processing system includes a management server for managing an upper limit, a print server for spooling a print job, and an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus acquires a print job to be processed from the print server in accordance with the user's instruction and executes a print process (STEP 1). Here, the image forming apparatus debits a balance of the upper limit allocated to the login user from the management server for executing a print process (STEP 2). In STEP 2, the image forming apparatus requests the management server to credit the balance of the required number based on the print job. The management server credits the image forming apparatus with the requested number within the limit of the remaining number for the user and reduces the remaining number of the user accordingly.
Here, when the number of prints reaches the upper limit value during a print process of the designated print job, the print process is terminated at that point of time even if a print job is left in the print server. Therefore, although the user has gone to the image forming apparatus for execution of a print process, the user cannot make the print process done.
As an image processing system that performs upper limit management in this manner, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-249563 discloses an information processing system for assisting in achieving a target. Specifically, a target period and a target value of the usage amount are stored. The usage amount at the end of the target period is predicted and compared with the target value, and if it is predicted that it is difficult to achieve the target, the job mode is automatically changed.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-176717 discloses an image processing system that automatically performs cancellation of all jobs and Nup printing (N pages are printed on one page) when an upper limit value is exceeded.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-140067 discloses a usage restriction method in an image forming apparatus, in which a permissible usage amount permitted to a group to which a plurality of users belong is stored in a server. When a user wishes to use any one of image forming apparatuses, the user is permitted to use only a part of the permissible usage amount stored in the server for the group to which the user belongs.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-140070 discloses a system in which a permissible usage amount of an image forming apparatus is allocated to a user, and the permissible usage amount is allocated to an image forming apparatus as an allocated permissible usage amount in accordance with a request from the image forming apparatus. The permissible usage amount allocated to the user is updated such that the allocated permissible usage amount is reduced from the present permissible usage amount of the user. In this system, if the permissible usage amount of the user is negative at present when the use of the image forming apparatus is additionally permitted to the user by a predetermined amount, the permissible usage amount of the image forming apparatus to be permitted to the user is updated such that the difference between the predetermined amount and the absolute value of the permissible usage amount is indicated.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-141432 discloses a system in which an upper limit of the usage amount is set for a group to which a plurality of users belong. In this case, when a plurality of users use a plurality of image forming apparatuses simultaneously, a usage amount allocated in advance is credited to each user at the start of processing, and the remaining usage amount is returned at the point of time when the usage amount in the image forming apparatus is finalized.
However, with the techniques disclosed in the documents above, when the number of prints reaches an upper limit value in the middle of printing a job accumulated in a server, the print is stopped during progress of processing the job even if a job not yet printed is left in the server. Therefore, the user cannot obtain the print results of all the designated jobs although the user has operated the image forming apparatus.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-176717 performs cancellation of all jobs or Nup printing so that the usage amount falls within the upper limit. However, all the designated jobs are not always printed even with such a design change, and the print results of all the designated jobs cannot be obtained when the upper limit is reached during job processing.